Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby - Softcover

Siepel, Kevin H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803216092 ISBN 13: 9780803216099

Publisher: Bison Books, 2008

Synopsis

Rebel is the first complete biography of Col. John S. Mosby, one of the  Confederacy's best-known practitioners of guerrilla warfare. The book not only covers his early life and wartime exploits, but also delves into his postwar life, breaking new ground in the process. Mosby, one-time nemesis of the U.S. government, not only became a staunch Republican and the friend of Republican presidents, but also went on to serve in crusading positions as U.S. consul in Hong Kong, as a Land Office special agent in Nebraska and Alabama, and as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. A fighter for much of his long life, he was nonetheless thoroughly revolted by the carnage being perpetrated in Europe as he approached his death in 1916.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Rebel is the first complete biography of the Confederacy's best-known partisan commander, John Singleton Mosby, the "Gray Ghost." A practicing attorney in Virginia and at first a reluctant soldier, in 1861 Mosby took to soldiering with a vengeance, becoming one of the Confederate army's highest-profile officers, known especially for his cavalry battalion's continued and effective harassment of Union armies in northern Virginia. Although hunted after the war and regarded, in fact, as the last Confederate officer to surrender, he later became anathema to former Confederates for his willingness to forget the past and his desire to heal the nation's wounds. Appointed U.S. consul in Hong Kong, he soon initiated an anticorruption campaign that ruined careers in the Far East and Washington. Then, following a stint as a railroad attorney in California, he surfaced again as a government investigator sent by President Theodore Roosevelt to tear down cattlemen's fences on public lands in the West. Ironically, he ended his career as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice.

About the Author

Kevin H. Siepel, most recently the author of the two-volume Conquistador Voices, writes on personal, historical, and environmental themes. His benchmark biography of Confederate cavalry officer John S. Mosby has proven durable, as has his biography of western New York state pioneer Joseph Bennett, which also broke new ground. Conquistador Voices takes a fresh look at the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, making heavy use of the conquistadors' own recollections to tell the tale.  Siepel's essays and articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Service Journal, Civil War, Wild West, two Chicken Soup for the Soul volumes, and elsewhere. One of his Monitor essays was translated into several languages and published worldwide by Readers Digest. Siepel lives in western New York state. Foreword writer Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005) represented Minnesota in both House and Senate and played a key role in the presidential race of 1968. Peter A. Brown, contributor of a new introduction, is the editor of Take Sides with the Truth: The Postwar Letters of John Singleton Mosby to Samuel F. Chapman. Benjamin Franklin Cooling, contributor of a second introduction, is the author of a number of books on the Civil War, most recently Counter-Thrust: From the Peninsula to the Antietam (Nebraska 2007).

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0803216092
• ISBN 13: 9780803216099
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384